Template:Refn/doc
![]() | This is a documentation subpage for Template:Refn. It may contain usage information, categories and other content that is not part of the original template page. |
Purpose
editThis template is used to create footnotes in Wikipedia, as an alternative and complement to the <ref>
. Because of a technical limitation, some of the standard Wikipedia markup elements that are often used in the article prose do not work within a set of <ref>...</ref>
tags, including but not limited to the pipe trick, template substitution and another "nested" set of <ref>...</ref>
tags. For example, the following does not work as expected:
<ref>[[Help:Footnotes|]]</ref>
(Generates: [[Help:Footnotes|]] instead of a wikilink)<ref>{{SUBST:TODAY}}</ref>
(Generates: {{SUBST:TODAY}} instead of the date that the edit was made)<ref>Explanatory footnote<ref>Citation</ref></ref>
(Generates: Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). </ref>)
Replacing the outermost <ref>...</ref>
set with {{Refn}} allows for the use of the markup elements listed above.
Usage
edit{{refn|group=groupname|name=name|Contents of the footnote}}
- groupname: Groupname per w:WP:REFGROUP; if not specified, then the main and nested references will be rendered into the same reference list
- name: Reference name per w:WP:REFNAME
Names for footnotes and groups must follow these rules:
- Names are case-sensitive.
- Names must not be purely numeric; they should have semantic value so that they can be more easily distinguished from each other by human editors.
- Names must be unique—you may not use the same name to define different groups or footnotes.
- Please consider keeping reference names simple and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals. Failing that, including if spaces are used, the following technical restrictions become relevant:
- Quotation marks are optional if the only characters used are letters
A–Z
,a–z
, digits0–9
, and the symbols!$%&()*,-.:;<@[]^_`{|}~
. That is, all printable ASCII characters except#"'/=>?\
. - Inclusion of any other characters, including spaces, requires that the reference name be enclosed in quotes; for example,
name="John Smith"
. - The quote marks must be the standard straight keyboard marks (
"
); curly or other quotes will be parsed as part of the reference name. - Quote-enclosed reference names may not include a less-than sign (
<
) or a double straight quote symbol ("
). These may be escaped with<
and"
, respectively.
- Quotation marks are optional if the only characters used are letters
- You may optionally provide reference names even when the reference name is not required. This makes later re-use of the sourced reference easier.
Examples
editFootnotes with citations
editMarkup | Renders as |
---|---|
|
|
Substitution
editThe first example shows that substitution does not work in a regular <ref>...</ref>
tag (the |access-date=
does not appear correctly). The second example shows that the |access-date=
is substituted correctly within {{refn}}.
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
|
|
{{refn|{{cite web |access-date={{Subst:TODAY}} |title=Languages |work=Apache HTTP Server |agency=Ohloh |publisher= Black Duck Software |url=https://www.ohloh.net/p/apache/analyses/latest/languages_summary}}}} {{reflist}} |
|
Errors
editIf the reference or note content is missing, then Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; refs with no name must have content. will be displayed.
If the note content contains an equals sign (=
), the equals sign will be interpreted as setting off a named parameter and cause an error. This can be worked around by using a numbered parameter, for example:
Markup | Renders as |
---|---|
{{refn|1+1=2}} |
Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page without content in them (see the help page). |
{{refn|1= 1+1=2}} |
|
See also
editTemplateData
editTemplateData for Refn
This template is used to create footnotes in Wikipedia, as an alternative and complement to the <ref> tag.
Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
---|---|---|---|---|
content | 1 | The content of the footnote. | Content | suggested |
name | name | The name of the footnote. Corresponds to the "name" attribute of the <ref> tag. | String | optional |
group | group | The reference group. Corresponds to the "group" attribute on the <ref> tag. | String | optional |